Ryan Reynolds Teases His ‘Deadpool’ Costume

Ryan Reynolds has been trying to get a proper Deadpool movie off the ground ever since he helped botch the character in the deplorable X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Yeah, he says he has a genuine affinity for the character, but he also has to appease the ever-fickle movie gods, who punished him for his earlier comic book movie transgressions by putting him in Green Lantern. Making a Deadpool movie is how he restores order to the universe. Anyway, Reynolds took to Twitter to share our first glimpse of the Merc With a Mouth’s costume and even in this early state, it’s a significant improvement over the previous big screen version of the character.

As you can see in the image below, Reynolds posed with what he calls a “prototype” of Deadpool’s unique mask, teasing the soon-to-shoot film approximately one year before it is set to open in theaters. He also drenches everything with a sepia filter, saying that this version of the mask is pink:

Some of you may wonder why this version of the Deadpool mask is pink instead of that trademark red. The answer is quite simple: Reynolds isn’t going to be wearing a full and proper superhero suit in this film. Like the test footage that leaked online (and ultimately got the film its green light), Reynolds will provide the physicality and voice of the fast-talking Mutant mercenary Wade Wilson, but the actual costume will be a CGI creation. The pink color will allow the visual effects team to easily remove this temp outfit and replace it with something proper.

It’s a choice that actually make a lot of sense. Deadpool is essentially a Looney Tunes character, a walking cartoon whose dumb sense of humor and ability to instantly heal any of his injuries (Wolverine-style) make him the Marvel equivalent of Bugs Bunny. Stab him, shoot him or run him over with a large vehicle and he’ll just come back with a wisecrack. By going the CGI route, director Tim Miller and his visual effects team can take Deadpool’s static mask and infuse it with personality, letting us see his expressions through the material. When 99% of a character’s appeal is his goofy comedy, you’ve got to give him facial expressions to sell his jokes.

Anyway, Deadpool is going in front of cameras really soon and we’ll probably start seeing images of Reynolds running around in an outfit that doesn’t look right at all. This first image feels like a warning to the fans: don’t worry ... it doesn’t look right yet, but it will.